form clusters of views on a subject, those that have valuable bibliographies, those
that are of current interest in the field, those that offer useful gatherings of facts,
and those that offer stimulating perspectives of any kind. In the annotation for
an item I try to bring out the features that justify its inclusion. Biographical mate-
rial on individual singers and other artists is excluded from this compilation. It is
a subject in itself, well attended to by Robert Cowden (#160, #161) and Andrew
Farkas (#162). Collected and complete works of composers are listed selectively; I
was looking for recent publications and those that include modern editions of
operas with commentaries.
To be practical, I have not annotated dissertations or the contents of individ-
ual volumes in certain series (Avant-scène opéra, Cambridge Opera Handbooks,
English National Opera Guides, and Rororo Opernbücher). Annotations are also
lacking for the few works I was unable to examine, unless I was able to find some-
thing about them elsewhere; I think I have explicated the situation in each
instance.
Each entry gives the names of principal authors, joint authors, editors, and
translators. Titles of earlier editions and of original language publications (in the
case of translations) are given, with dates and publishers. An ISBN (International
Standard Book Number) is included for the edition examined, if the book has one
(most American, British, and German books published from around 1968 have
these numbers, but the situation is variable regarding the issues of other coun-
tries). An ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) is given for lesser-known
periodicals. Entries for monographs have Library of Congress (LC) call numbers.
Most American research libraries use the LC classification, so these numbers will
assist someone in finding materials in their collections; however, libraries fre-
quently modify the LC number, so this technique requires caution. In general I
have accepted the authority of the LC for transliterations, forms of names, and
bibliographic data. The imprint omits the name of the country of publication,
unless the location of the publisher’s city might be in doubt. Typically, a book in
Italian is published in Italy, one in German is published in Germany or in a famil-
iar Austrian city, and so on. The only crossover language is English, and for
imprints published in a city that may not be well known, I specify the country.
To keep the annotations short, I use certain terms frequently. A “life and
works” treatment of a composer is a basic biography with some discussion of the
compositions. A “genesis” study of an opera is the account of its creation, which
could include its literary or mythological sources, influences by other composers,
details of the collaboration between composer and librettist, sketches and early
revisions, and anything pertinent to the preparation of the work for the first per-
formance. A “performance history” is the tale of the opera’s stagings, from pre-
miere onward, and “reception” deals with critical and public response to it. A
“program note” describes an opera in layman’s language, while an “analysis”
offers a more technical discussion in terms familiar only to the musically trained
reader.
My descriptions are for the most part noncritical—the presence of a writing
in the list implies that it is of value—but I have thought it helpful to introduce
Introduction xvii